Lightning Flash and Arc Weld managed to make it out of the meeting and to the stable door room without encountering any foals. Not that they were guaranteed to stop them, since they didn't appear to be doing anything suspicious.

Nevertheless, they happened upon the secret passage to the overmare's office. It was electronically locked by a nearby terminal, and since only the overmare had the pass-code, who hadn't been seen since the violence first began, it fell upon the two ponies to hack the terminal.

Bakewell deflected Sunflower's hoof, but she didn't have time to attempt a grapple. Immediately after deflecting the blow, Sunflower lunged forward with her face, and bit down painfully into Bakewell's hoof. Bakewell's blood began pouring out of the wound, trickling down her teacher's lips.

Her instructor had been forcing out labored breaths, each one seemed to be a painful moment, as air filled her mottled lungs. Bakewell could feel something chip when Sunshine bit into her... it was a piece of the ghoul's tooth, which had chipped off and deposited itself within the quickly bloodying wound.

Sunshine wailed loudly, releasing a torturous scream, before barreling into Bakewell, attempting to push her to the floor where she might consume her.

Sky left her room at a very inopportune moment. Just across the hallway from her stood a foal. A zebra, named Einara, who grinned maliciously when Sky trotted out in front of her.

"Hello, officer," Einara spoke in a soft, condescending tone. She readied her weapon, just in case. "Have you had any luck finding your coltfriend? No? That's such a shame. I'd like to think that every moment away from you is torture for the poor little colt."

Sundae seemed to cower a little more at every example Violet provided. Shouting, growling, threatening to eat her, those all sounded terrifying! Even sneezing scared her in that context. Her hooves were visibly shaking, albeit only slightly. The fact that Sundae was wielding an automatic weapon seemed to be of little comfort to her.

"O-oh, wow. Uhm, no, none of those things, but... *gulp* those sure sound scary. He was just, uhm, big, like other grown-ups, and was really scary, because I never saw him before. J-Jack usually takes care of ponies like that for me, so I don't get scared again."

Fabric Stocks knocked on the door before he trotted into the room. "Uh, Shutter? Are you and the Johnson twins finished? I don't mean to intrude, but I just caught a glimpse of the clock, and it's almost nine."

Shutter's father stared at Shutter and his two friends for a moment, expecting them to understand the implications of what he had said, before remembering that they had been gone from the stable since the incident.

"Oh! Uh, remember the nine-o-clock curfew for foals? You might not, since you were always home after school, but the foals have reversed it. Mares and stallions can't be outside their homes after the lights go down, so uhm, if you want your friends to stay the night, that's okay with me. I actually always wondered why you never invited any friends over."

Fabric Stocks shook off the thought, since it wasn't really important at the moment. "Anyway, if you three have something you want to do, you should do it quickly, and be inside when the lights go dim."

Sky stared at the foal zebra stood in front of Sky with a weapon, Sky ears perked up when she spoke of Gear. "Wait, Gear is alive? Take me to him Einara," Sky spoke to the foal zebra and He was still alive, she needs to go and check up on him. Probably he wont be with her anymore, but she needed to know if he was alright. Right now she needed to right the wrongs she did in the past, at least that she could do. to try and save Gear, she had to at least do that.

Bakewell cringed in pain as her instructor bit down into the earth pony’s flesh. The sight of her own blood streaking down Sunflower’s ghoul lips seemed to shock the pony into action as instinct and self-preservation temporarily overtook guilt and reason. As the crazed zombie-teacher hit Bakewell, the unarmed pony caught her assailant in an attempt to bring the ghoul down with her. Upon hitting the ground Bakewell would roll, using her superior weight and strength in an attempt to pin the ghoul beneath her so that gravity could assist the beige mare in her attempts to crush the former-teacher’s head.

The tooth stuck in her wound was also more than a bit concerning. Bakewell absentmindedly found herself hoping that whatever happened to Mrs. Smiles wasn’t contagious.

Violet’s grin faded a bit as Sundae explained her reasoning for Arc’s ‘scariness’. She blinked, blinked again, blinked a third time, before finally cocking her head and speaking “Sooo....Let me get this straight....You thought he was scary....Because he was big...And you’ve never seen him before?” she slowly said. “....You do know that not all big ponies you’ve never meant are mean and scary, right?” ‘Granted, outside of the stable a pretty big chunk of them are, but she doesn’t need to know that.’ “And that if you stopped and talked to him he’d probably be pretty nice? I’ve met plenty of nice, adult ponies out there! And I’m pretty sure Arc Weld is one of them...He didn’t seem like a mean pony at least.”

Lightning was not the best at hacking and he knew that he better leave this job to Arc. He trusted Arc though and the pegasus had faith that he would be able to do this. "Alright. You got this. Good luck." Moving to stand by the hallway, he would watch for any ponies that could be wandering their way.

Shutter gave a nod to his Father, resisting the urge to point out that the reason he never had friends over was because untill recently, he didn't have any friends...

Instead, he gave a sigh, and trotted up to the Stable tailor

"...Dad, thank you. But right now, the only thing I can think of that we need, is questions answered. What happened? This place was overrun with psychos when we had to flee, and now the foals are in charge? We need to know exactly what happened here while we were on the surface..."

He asked, a sense of dread in his chest. Part of Shutter felt like he didn't want to know what had befalled his old home...but he needed to find out, all the same, so he could help...

Bakewell managed to roll on top of the ghoul, who was flailing violently and striking Bakewell with her front hooves. The strikes hurt, but a pony like Bakewell easily shrugged them off. With one powerful strike of her hoof, Bakewell crushed Sunshine's head. Her skull was immediately cracked, and large chunks of it embedded themselves within Sunflower's skull. There was a gruesome spray of blood, which poured over Bakewell's hoof and chest. Some of it splattered across her face.

It only took several seconds, but after the teacher's body went limp, a message came over the loudspeakers, which was heard across the entire stable. The voice was bright, and cheery. Something which felt very out of place amongst the horrors of this stable.

"Hello, everypony. It's now nine o'clock, and you know what that means; curfew time! All you little foals better run along home now and get to bed, you don't want to get detention and be late for little Ralphie's birthday party! Nothing but the best for our overmare's little foal. This is your teacher Sunflower Smiles, wishing peace and happiness to every one of you. Goodnight!"

*click*, the intercom shut off. Bakewell recognized the recording, it was the last message played over the intercom before the violence broke out the very next day. It was hard to forget it.

A quick, rage-filled glare replaced Einara's smug, deviant grin. She lifted the rifle, aiming at Sky's hooves, when the message came over the intercom.

Einara froze, staring straight into Sky's eyes as the message played out. When it ended, the smug grin reappeared across her face, and she opened her mouth to speak.

"It looks like you're out past your curfew time, officer. I'm going to have to arrest you." Einara pointed the gun at her, and motioned toward the hallway behind her, gesturing for Sky to start trotting.

Sundae appeared visibly distressed, more so than she had already been. Her ears folded back, and she began to cower slightly, as she struggled to voice a response.

"W-well, uhm, I don't know. I was, uhm, scared at first, and I ran away. M-maybe he was nice, b-but I'm really shy, and... and I'm not good at talking to ponies, and Jack is really strong, and he makes the problems go away for me."

It was then that a muffled groan could be heard from behind the glass window, from the cell. The window was marked across with some sort of black marker, which covered the entire window, making it impossible to see through, but Sundae didn't seem to react well to the noise.

"Uh... oh my. That's... I don't like to think about that," Sundae said to Violet, in response to the noise.

Arc Weld managed to hack through the terminal, and unlock the door. Just as it began to open, Sunflower's recorded message played over the intercom. At first, either of the two might have mistaken it for some kind of alarm, but as the message played, it became clear that it was merely coincidental.

When the two would enter, they would find a narrow corridor, which turned only once as it led to the overmare's office. The door closed behind them, but there was a terminal to open the door on their side, so they had effectively concealed their tracks.

As they entered the overmare's office, they were met by a grisly sight. Resting upon the overmare's desk was the overmare herself, or at least what was left of her. All that was left of her were bones. There was a broken wine bottle lying on the floor near the desk, and a thick stain of wine across the floor. The desk itself was stained in a thick pool of red, with red streaks across the front as well. The pool itself was situated directly beneath the place the skull rested. There was a hole piercing through opposite sides of the skull, and a 9mm gun resting upon the table.

The door to the security office was locked from their side. They could easily open the door from their side, but it was safe to say that nopony had stepped hoof in this room since the overmare's demise.

Across the back wall was a set of terminals, with a live-feed monitoring the stable. It was safe to say that the overmare had a view of everything which had happened in the stable, outside of the resident's own houses, and Arc and Flash could still see what was happening. They could even see what was happening in the security office, and within the adjacent cell.

Violet and another filly were speaking within the security office. There wasn't much knowledge to be gained, outside of the fact that the filly was armed.

In the cell, the two could see the bound and brutalized body of Gear. All four of his legs were tightly constricted by stable security cuffs, and his body was heavily bruised and beaten. There were several open wounds across his body, and the floor walls of the cell were spotted with his blood.

Before Fabric Stocks could answer, Sunflower's message played over the intercom. He waited for the recording to end, before he spoke up.

"Well, I guess it's too late for you ponies to go out. You two can sleep on the couch, and Shutter, your room hasn't changed since you left. I kept dusting it, you know... hoping you'd come back... but uh, you can sleep there."

Fabric Stocks dug his hoof at the floor, briefly. He hadn't really given Shutter the sort of welcome he had dreamed of giving him, and he had thought about what he would do if Shutter ever returned constantly. He had so much he had wanted to say or do, but now that Shutter was actually here, he couldn't muster up the fortitude to do or say any of that. He had actually resigned himself to the belief that Shutter had died.

"So, uh... what happened, right." Fabric continued, wiping a tear out of his eye. "Well, the violence broke out...we had initially thought that the entire stable had gone up in flames, it felt like everypony was dying, or murdering eachother. After the dust settled, we realized it was really only the act of a few crazy ponies, and the panicked reactions of the rest of us. Most of us just barricaded ourselves in our homes and waited it out, those of us who didn't leave, that is. Most of the security staff was caught up in the violence, most died or ran away. The foals got their hooves on the weapons, and they just... took over."

Sky was being arrested by this little foal, she couldn't believe it. Sky was an officer of this stable, but now these little brats own the entire stable. Sky didn't even say a word and just followed instructions, just do this and wait for back up? Sky would have to find a way to save gear and break out of the stable, with the rest of the entire group. But for now just play along with the zebra foal and get to lockup, form there she would either wait for her friends or find a way to break out. Sky just trotted forward into the hallway, this little foal will have a bad day when this is all over.

Arc watched overmare's remains for a minute or two, colpmletely oblivious to the world around him.

"So here she lies... she must have seen it all, her own little sad kingdom, slaughtering itself in front of her eyes, and the only thing she could do was to watch it happen... and only a bottle and pistol to keep company... ain't life grand?"

"Rest in peace."

His attention turned to the pistol on the ground. Arc removed the magazine still holding 11 bullets and cycled the slide few times. It was still intact.

"Flash, i'm a shitty shot, but i suppose you can make some use of this thing. If we can jump those two next room, we cna probably scare the other filly half to death, fast enought to prevent her from doing anything stupid."

Arc glanced at the monitors again. They had to help Gears, and fast. Heh... her own little kingdom...

The recording had impeccable timing, the cheery voice of the double-late Sunflower Smiles perforated through the gloomy radiation filled classroom as Bakewell stared down at the teacher’s caved in head, adding a whole new sense of horror to the scene. The extra reminder of little Ralphie’s death and the violent stable genocide from a year ago compounded onto each other far too well, making the mare’s brain feel fuzzy and numb. It did register in the beige pony’s mind that the message probably had a new purpose intended to make more adult lives miserable and that she should stay out of the hallways, but how could she do that? She couldn’t stay in the classroom; the clicking from her pipbuck assured her of that much. Her mother had all but turned her away, so she couldn’t go home either.

She also had her wound to worry about. The clinic, while probably housing the supplies she could use, would definitely be guarded. Maybe she could just wash it the wound out? Argh. Violet would probably know what to do, but the vent crawling filly could be literally anywhere!

“…Sorry.” The freshly blood-painted mare muttered quietly to the body of Mrs. Smiles before leaving the classroom as quietly as possible and making her way for the bathrooms. Maybe she could wash her wound and spend the night hiding out in one of the stalls to get her thoughts in order and decide one single emotion to feel instead of the jumbled quiet mess she was encountering at present.

Lightning frowned as he saw the sight before him. The overmare's body...or more like skeleton. On the other terminals, he could see the live video footage going on in the stable right now. That was good, very good. That means they could get a jump on the foals if they had too. Perking his ears at Arc, the pegasus would turn to him, "Alright, I'll take the 9mm. But before we try to take over the security office, let's try to find out where the other foals are. If this video is live, then we should be able to find out where the others are before we try anything that might alert them."

He would pause for a second, looking at the video screen with Gear in it. Lightning knew that this wasn't going to be easy getting him out. He was wounded. The pegasus wondered if he could even walk. "If we want to storm the security room, he would have to do it fast. That other filly is armed. I don't want to start a firefight. We can't harm them and I don't feel like shooting their limps. I know there will be some ponies around that would frown upon that."

"...They just took over? Why would they do that? ...I don't understand..."

Shutter asked, confusion clear in his voice. He didn't like this...after listening to Jasmine and his father, it still felt like there was a gap in this story...like there was a missing detail or something that just prevented it from making sense to him...

"Ugh...okay, we're gonna have to think about what we can do...those foals don't nearly have the ability to run the stable, an...Dad? Are you crying?"

Shutter asked, as he turned to his father, and immeidatly noticed the dampness around his eyes. Shutter would be lying if he didn't feel a moment of sadness too at seeing his father upset, as he stepped up to the older stallion, clearly concerned.

"...Are...are you okay? Did something else happen while we were on the surface? What's wrong"

Last edited by Shutter on Mon Nov 26, 2012 10:27 pm; edited 1 time in total (Reason for editing : Spelling Errors)

Jasmine heard the voice of her late teacher echo throughout the stable during the announcement. Her eyes widened at the end of the message as a feeling of dread came over her, and not from any grief. She gave Shutter a moment to console Mr. Stocks, trying to search for a proper moment to voice herself. Eventually her concern just couldn't wait and she turned her focus from a near by clock to Shutter and Starry.

"Guyth! Momth all by herthelf! I have to get home now, Mom hath no idea that I wathn't going to make it from curfew. I don't want her to worry too much".

Jasmine canters to the entrance of the room. Getting home to her mother was at the forefront of her mind; she didn't have time to consider the consequences of getting caught.

"Mr. Thutter'th dad, I'm going to run home, I think I can make it without being caught...I jutht need to make thure that mom doethn't go looking for me...".

"Uh oh, you're right, Jasmine! Not to mention I haven't seen mom yet. Hey Shutter, I hate to cut your sentimental time with your father short, but do you want to sneak out with us? I understand perfectly if you want to spend this night with your father, but Jazz and I need to go see mom, and I'd like to introduce you to her as well."

Starry followed Jasmine toward the door, trying to keep up with her. She didn't want to fall behind, so Starry stepped in front of the door, to make sure Jasmine didn't rush out.

“Right, I can see that.” responded Violet, sitting down as she kept her glowing eyes on Sundae, a small smile on her face. “But how does Jack make those problems go away? I mean, he can’t be just talking to the ponies who scare you, you don’t need Snarly and that other guard he took with him just to talk to somepony.”

When the groan could be heard from the adjacent Cell, Violet merely paid it a glance over her shoulder, smile not leaving. She knew exactly what was on the other side, and while she wasn’t happy about it at all, there was nothing she could do while Sundae was here. “What’s in there anyway? Sounds like a pony...a hurt pony.”

Lightning Flash and Arc Weld scanned the monitors, observing the various hallways and public rooms of the stable. It took them a while to piece together where many of the cameras were actually located, and how to draw a picture of the stable from it.

As they were drawing a mental picture, they spotted several alarming incidents. First was Sky, who was being led by gunpoint toward the security office. They also managed to spot Bakewell, cleaning her bloody wound in one of the bathrooms. Though the inside of the stalls were not visible through the camera, the presence of the bathroom cameras might have come as a disturbing surprise. They could see Starry, Jasmine and Shutter sneaking through the corridors. There didn't appear to be any foals near them, so they appeared safe.

What was concerning was Jack charging down the hallway, his weapon ready, followed by a diamond dog pup and earth pony foal, both with their weapons readied as well. They watched them march down the halls, and there seemed to only be one possible destination... the resistance meeting area. The two could see the room clearly, the mares and stallions were still in the room, along with Flash's parents.

By the time they had realized what Jack was doing, it was already too late. The diamond dog pup had broken through the shoddy maintenance door, and Jack and his accomplices had opened fire. The two could only watch in horror as the ponies were gunned down. There was no mercy, no pragmatic consideration for the any ponies who might be vital to maintaining the stable. Blood decorated the walls.

Jack huffed, angrily, before storming out of the room, followed by his guards. Many of the mares and stallions were still alive, bleeding out slowly, cursed to a slow and painful death. Flash's parents were among them.

Bakewell had found her way to the mare's restroom uninterrupted. The halls were eerily vacant, as every mare or stallion was evidently wise enough to remain indoors.

The bathroom was just as Bakewell remembered it. a row of sinks in front of a row of stalls. There was an emergency medical kit hanging against the wall, inside of which were basic medical supplies; gauze, scissors, and a few bottles of painkillers. One bottle, though, was labeled differently. It was labeled 'Pace', and the bottle carried an extensive warning label, with the words shrunk down to fit it on the bottle. The warning was, as a result, to small to be legible. The bottle had evidently been opened before.

Shortly after checking the medical supplies and bandaging herself, Bakewell would hear gunshots echoing throughout the hallways, coming from deeper in the maintenance level. The noise did sound distant, but gunshots echoed very far through the stable corridors. Bakewell could remember from the stable incident, the overwhelming sound of gunfire which was carried throughout the stable.

Fabric Stocks looked incredibly concerned when the three made their plan to sneak out. "Be careful! Don't get caught!" he instructed them, and gave Shutter a powerful hug before the three left.

The three made it almost halfway to their destination, before they were greeted by the loud sound of gunfire, coming from the maintenance area. The three were passing by a staircase to the maintenance level when the gunshots rang out, and they sounded to be coming from close-by. Soon, they could hear the sound of hoof-steps approaching the stairwell. There was definitely more than one pony, and judging by the light sounds, it might be safe to assume they were foals.

The group would need to hide, fast. There was a maintenance locker near the stairwell, which was hanging open. The locker seemed just large enough to cram in three ponies. Down the south corridor was a door to a home, which, if occupied, the tenant might be kind enough to grant shelter to the three. There was nothing to hide in along the north corridor, but it branched off soon enough that they might be able to reach the turn quickly and quietly enough. Jasmine would certainly be able to.

Sundae was struggling to respond to Violet's question. She had already taken to lying on the floor, in what is best explained as an instinctual sign of submission, when the door to the security office flung open, and in trotted Sky, followed closely behind by Einara.

Einara merely rolled her eyes at the sight of Sundae, being unintentionally spoken into submission by Violet. "Get off the floor, you cowardly little foal! We've got a new prisoner, open up the cell door and let her in!"

Einara glanced over at Violet, but she kept her eye on Sky. She didn't trust either of them, and didn't want to let either out of her sight.

"Hey, you must be that filly that Jack's all hot and sweaty about," she said to Violet, "Well, just you remember, we've got a chain of command here, and as far as I'm concerned, you're starting at the bottom of it! So you do what I say, got it?"

Einara didn't wait for confirmation before issuing her first order, "Now get those hoof-cuffs on the table there, and lock up the prisoner!"

The silent hallways did little to ease Bakewell. Something bad definitely happened at night. But surely her mother had known that. Why had she insisted on her leaving anyway? Because Bakewell was a monster, of course. That had to be it. Cherry had looked so happy, but maybe she had been faking. Maybe she had always been faking.

The trip to the bathroom had been thankfully uneventful, and nopony had jumped out to shoot at her while she worked to clean up her bloodied leg. The medical kit had been a Celestia-send, and the beige earth pony felt as though she had done a reasonable job on her leg. Maybe as good as Violet! Okay, maybe not that good. She left the drugs alone. She wasn’t sure what “Pace” even did, but did know better than to inject random drugs into her system. She couldn’t even carry it around with her because she didn’t have her saddlebags!

When the gunshots happened Bakewell started and ducked into one of the stalls. Was this what happened to ponies who got caught outside? But surely everypony would know better after a year!

…Everypony except her for companions. Oh sweet Celestia why was she here in a bathroom while her friends were getting murdered? But where could she go? How could she help?

She couldn’t. If she left, that would be her. If two of the new ponies were caught outside, the foals might just decide to off the entire lot of them! All she could do was sit in this stupid bathroom all night and pray that nopony was dead.

When Lightning finally located Jack on the video, he could tell something was off. He was running down the hall with some other young foal and pup. Watching him move from screen to screen, the moment came where he realized where Jack was going. "Oh no...he's going to the...!"

Jack had broken into the maintenance room. He wasn't...no...he was! He was firing at all the ponies in the room! His parents! They were still inside! "No! Mom! Dad!" In one fell swoop, Jack had just attacked nearly every adult in the stable. Lightning continued to stare at the screen helplessly, breathing in heavily even after Jack disappeared off camera. Anger began to rise up in him and despite his want to keep his mind clear, it was becoming impossible to the stallion.

Gritting his teeth around the 9mm, he would yell at nopony in particular, "I'm going to murder him! I'm going to freaking murder him and all of his little followers! I'm going to make him wish he never was born!" He would spin around quickly, already storming toward the exit.

Sky trotted down were she was supposed to, the security office. Then she noticed one particular filly standing in the in the office, It was violet. Off all the fillies why was she here, Sky didn't understand it but she just played along. This little filly might have something up her hoof, if she remembered how she was in the mohoofe. Sky didn't say anything to her other than wait for the filly to take her as a prisoner, Sky knew of way to get out but after a year she forgot how too. But being back in the security office might refresh her mind or she was screwed.

His eyes dancing between the monitor showing room full of dying ponies and Flash leving for rampage on foals, time seemed to amlost stop for Arc, just for a few moment.

"So what now, Arcie? You could probably snatch the magazine from the pistol, you could probably try to stop him from getting himself killed, and probably make yourself the conductor of all that rage, maybe even killing yourself in the process... or you could let him go... so which foalish thing it will be, my dear me?"

Arc chose.

"Flash! Wait! We still have to go and save Gear, and we promised, promised for fucks sake, that we will not harm any foal in this stable. And you know to whom we promised! We still have to help those whom we can still help! Sky and Gears is still in the next room!"

Lightning paused in mid-step as he, luckily, chose to listen to Arc. He hung his head a little as he heard his words and knew that the unicorn was right. He still wasn't thinking very clearly but Arc was right. The pegasus did promise that he wouldn't harm any of the foals. He gritted his teeth a little harder as he muttered, "Damn it...Damn it..."

Lightning would turn back to face Arc and give him a nod, "Alright, fine. Let's go save Sky and Gear. But if any of those foals start shooting at us, I can't promise that I won't fire back. Let's see if we can't catch those two foals off guard and steal their guns from them."

The sound of hooves echoed from the stair well. Jasmine stopped dead in her tracks after the first shots rang out. At first she flinched when the gun fire startled her. But soon another noise made its way to her ears, foals ascending the stair case with haste. Her heart began to race as she started to panic; all the while past encounters with the foals ran through her head.

Jasmine turned her head to her sister and her colt friend, "Th-tar, Thutter..." Her lip trembled as she switched her gaze between the direction where the hoof steps resonated from and her companions, unable to utter a word. Beads of sweat began to make their way onto her forehead. She had two other ponies to be scared for in addition to herself; and thinking proved to be even more difficult under this pressure. Despite her trepidation, she refused to abandon Starry and Shutter; she managed to blurt in a hushed tone, "hide!"